NEW EPISODE OF THE SPHERE PODCAST:

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, Publisher of Sphere Media, interviews Clare Morell, a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and author of "The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones." They talk about the evidence for why smartphones are bad for kids, why things like parental controls and screen time limits aren't enough and you need to just rid your kids of screens (Pascal is skeptical, but Clare makes a convincing argument), how you can start with a 30-day digital detox, what substitutes you can find for your kids, and finally they do discuss some public policy options for protecting our kids from interactive screens.

Learn more about Clare's book here, subscribe to her Substack here, and peruse Clare's scholarship here.

Listen to this episode on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts.

And, of course, SUBSCRIBE to the Sphere Podcast on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts.

PREVIOUSLY:

→ Guest article by Fred De Fossard of the Prosperity Institute: "Explained: The Afghan Migrant Scandal And Coverup Shaking Up Britain"

→ Analysis: How The Trump Administration Can Take Over The Ivy League

The AI Action Plan

So, the much-awaited AI Action Plan is out. Here's the actual paper (PDF) and the very nice mini-site. (Interestingly, the site has an entire education section that is not part of the paper.)

We are still working our way through the document with a fine-tooth comb, and will have more to say about it. However, here's a few things we would say right off the bat.

It's less one thing, than the whole thing and how it's done. More than any particular policy proposal, what struck us is the overall, for lack of a better term, "vibe" of the document. The whole thing breathes two very important things: ambition, and expertise. It reads like a document that is made by people who really know their sector, are really passionate about it, and have really thought through how to accomplish their goals through policy. It sounds basic, but if you're reading this, you probably know—it's not! Policy papers are too often full of mind-numbing detail (which is sometimes necessary), or full of abstract plans that will never see the light of day, or at least haven't been thought through in terms of how they might actually see the light of day, or just boringly pedestrian. Let's face it, most policy papers that come out of an Administration are exercises in box-checking. The paper itself is the event, so you can say, "Yes, we have studied this issue, and we have plans for how to address it, and we might even do some bits of it." This is not that. The people who wrote this are dead serious about what they're doing and they want to accomplish it in the real world. You can SMELL it.

Overall, it's what we expected. We expected it to mostly talk about rolling back regulation or preventing regulation from stopping AI. We expected it to talk about the need to build data centers and energy. We expected it to have mercantilist language about pushing American AI on allies, and yet also (somehow) enrolling them into an alliance against China. We expected it to discuss winning the AI race, and to talk about how AI shouldn't be woke. This is not a criticism. These are all the things that AI optimists have been saying they want, and we know this Administration's AI policy is run by AI optimists.

Worker focus. What we were not expecting so much (though in retrospect, there were gestures in that direction), and welcome, is the worker focus of the document. It emphasizes what it calls a "worker-first AI agenda" throughout, with extensive sections on topics such as: protecting American workers from AI displacement, funding for rapid retraining programs, tax incentives for AI skill development, and creating an "AI Workforce Research Hub" to study labor market impacts.

Smart regulation. The paper talks a lot about deregulation and overregulation, but it's far from an ideologically libertarian document. In fact, we would describe its approach as smart regulation, which is so refreshing to see from a Republican administration. There are sections on building an "AI evaluations ecosystem," which seems like the smart approach to us, mandating "secure-by-design AI" for critical applications, creating incident response frameworks, and so on. The document's approach to regulation, while obviously generally and avowedly laissez-faire (there's nothing wrong with that), is actually a lot more nuanced than it appears on the surface.

As we said, we will have much more to say soon.

Policy News You Need To Know

#HigherEd — The Trump Administration has reached a settlement with Columbia University: in short, the university will pay $200 million to the US government and "over $20 million to their Jewish employees" and commit to ending DEI and affirmative action. It's hard not to see this as a disappointment. Columbia will have a few more Asian students and remain a woke madrassa and teach the future elites of America to hate America. It's telling that Larry Summers applauded the settlement and called it "an excellent template for agreements with other institutions."

SEE ALSO: How The Trump Administration Can Take Over The Ivy League

#HigherEd #DEI — Speaking of: such a deal will also be frightfully hard to enforce. Indeed, just this week in the Journal, Jason L. Riley reports that in spite of pretending otherwise, medical schools are quietly engaging in affirmative action again.

#OpenUpTheLibelLaws — Let's get one thing out of the way: Brigitte Macron is a female with two X chromosomes and always has been. She grew up and lived in a tight-knit upper class community in the North of France and it is simply not possible that she wasn't Brigitte when she was born, and when she was a child, and when she became a teacher, and when she ran away from her previous life with young Emmanuel Macron. Thinking otherwise is ludicrous and pretending otherwise is ludicrous. Nobody in France has ever thought this; the "Brigitte Macron is a man" meme started out as a joke on the French e-right, certainly tasteless but in no way serious, and apparently got mistranslated on its way to the Anglophone internet. All of which is to say that the Macrons, in their capacity as individuals, have filed a defamation suit against Candace Owens for her multiple videos spreading the theory that Brigitte Macron is secretly a biological male. They have filed the suit in Delaware, because this is where Owens's company is incorporated. As you probably know, since the Supreme Court decision in NYT v. Sullivan in 1964 (this is in no way intrinsic to the First Amendment), public figures who sue media figures for defamation have a very high burden of proof to meet, the proof of "actual malice." However, the Macrons presumably have good lawyers, and their lawsuit alleges that they provided Owens with evidence of Mrs Macron's biological sex and that Owens chose to disregard that evidence. If this is true, then they could very well demonstrate "actual malice," that is to say, that Owens knew for a fact that she was lying. Obviously the Macrons should win, and Owens should pay a significant penalty for her libels. We in the new Republican Party believe in "opening up the libel laws" and this is a very good example of why this is a good policy.

#RuleOfLaw #Russiagate — We have made this point many times: in many ways, the reelection of President Trump was about the restoration of the rule of law in America. This means that in order to fulfill its mandate, the Trump Administration must bring true accountability to the people who perverted the use of government and law to exact retribution on political enemies. Which means criminal prosecutions. This includes any and all people who had a hand in the so-called Russiagate Hoax, which was one of the most disgraceful episodes in American political history and, according to new bombshell revelations by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, included people going all the way to the top of the government in 2016, including Barack Obama. Which is why we're happy to pass along this press release: "Justice Department Announces Formation of Strike Force to Assess Evidence Publicized by ODNI." We hope the process goes all the way to its conclusion.

#RuleOfLaw #Immigration — Speaking of rule of law: Twenty states, led by Democratic attorneys general, are suing the Trump administration to block a policy that restricts illegal aliens' access to taxpayer-funded federal benefit programs. These programs include Head Start, healthcare, food assistance, shelters, mental health services, and other safety net services. This is, of course, absurd. Congress voted to end these programs, which should have never existed to begin with, and there is no Constitutional provision that mandates benefits for illegal aliens.

#Trade #Tariffs — A very interesting and understudied phenomenon: the EU seems to have significantly shifted its stance when it comes to trade with China. The EU-China trade summit has just begun, and all observers are saying that the EU's stance has shifted from its usual dovishness. This is, of course, interesting to the US. A lot of moderate trade hawks fantasized about some sort of trade settlement where the US would lead a free trade bloc of friendly countries against China; President Trump clearly hasn't seen things that way, and sees friend or foe alike through a hard-nosed mercantilist lens. But, if the EU is prepared to go to a trade war with China, maybe that changes the calculus…

#Trade #Tariffs — Speaking of, President Trump posted the following message to Truth Social: "I will always give up Tariff points if I can get major countries to OPEN THEIR MARKETS TO THE USA. Another great power of Tariffs. Without them, it would be impossible to get countries to OPEN UP!!!" Worthwhile to keep in the back of one's mind as one watches the back-and-forth of trade negotiations, especially given the perception that President Trump is myopically focused only on tariffs and trade balances.

#FamilyPolicy #Life — Senator Cotton and several colleagues introduced an interesting bill, which would "amend the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to include the spontaneous loss of an unborn child as a qualifying medical condition for FMLA leave. The bill would also establish a tax credit for a woman that suffers the loss of a child in the womb." This seems like a no-brainer. It's telling that the only co-sponsors are Republican.

#Science — This may be one of the most monumental medical/public health breakthroughs since mRNA vaccines or the Green Revolution: scientists have genetically edited mosquitoes so that they cannot transmit malaria; and they made the mutation self-replicating, which means that all the descendants of these mosquitoes also cannot infect humans.

#Science — Also very encouraging: the Department of Energy has just announced that scientists have managed to recycle nuclear waste into Thorium-229, which is a cancer-fighting isotope.

#FiscalProbity — The Army's much-criticized military parade cost $30 million. That's pretty cheap! And worth noting given that much of the disingenuous criticism centered on the alleged cost.